I'm getting a large runout on my Hornady seating die.

I'm making up some dummy 6.5mm SAUM rounds to give to my gunsmith for him to cut the throat to the right length, and also to check the feeding out of the magazine.

I have been using my Hornady 7mm SAUM seater, with the 7mm seater stem replaced with a Hornady 6.5mm seater (this is the one for the AMAX) - since my projectiles are the Berger 140gr VLD I figured that it would work well.

However, after seating runout is around .006 which is a PITA because after neck sizing my necks are between .001 & .002.

I have my suspicions that the Hornady die is calibre specific and it is not supporting the case unlike the Forster or Redding dies which are cartridge specific and support the case for better concentricity.

However, I've used Hornady pretty exclusively and have always had good results. My other option is to purchase a 7mm SAUM Forster seater and swap out the 7mm seater stem with a 6.5mm seater.

Apart from turning the case 2-3 times and gradually seating the projectile (which has worked well in the past), what other methods for seating projectiles works well?

Cheers,

Michael.

Are your neck walls uniform in thickness?

Yes they are. I'm using Norma 300 SAUM brass

Turn the rounds, as you did, Or try another make.

Norma brass is regarded as equal to Lapua. Upgrade to a Foster Benchrest Die Set and you would never regret. Sell the Hornady and it would not cost you that much. Foster makes excellent dies.

quote:

Originally posted by kiwiwildcat:
Yes they are. I'm using Norma 300 SAUM brass

Quality of the brass is not the question, are the neck even in thickness from one side to the other? When you reform your brass it flows and the case walls often thicken and thin unevenly causing a need to turn them. The OD of the case neck may be very uniform and show no run out, but the inside could be 0.003 or more off. This shows on the bullet as it seats off center of the outer case wall.

Even with new unfired brass it is not uncommon to see 0.002"-0.003" difference in neck wall thickness.

quote:

Norma brass is regarded as equal to Lapua. Upgrade to a Foster Benchrest Die Set and you would never regret. Sell the Hornady and it would not cost you that much. Foster makes excellent dies.

Thanks for the input Reloader270

I have an account with Sinclair International and will be placing an order with them over the next day or so for a Forster bench rest seater die (it will go well with my Redding neck die).

I will probably keep the Hornady 7 mm SAUM die set as I can still use the FL die for reforming 300 SAUM and possibly for resizing the brass when it gets too long for the chamber, or else order a Redding body die.

make sure the tips of the bullets are not bottoming out in the seating cone before it makes contact with the bullet. ive had good results by centering the bullet in the case by very lightly touching the seater and rotating the case several times before pushing the bullet into the case. with the wilson seaters you can spin the seater spindle between your fingers to center bullet for near zero run out